Fertility Doctor Gets Five Years

Published: May 9, 1992

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 8—
Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson was sentenced today to five years in prison for using his own sperm to inseminate female patients who sought help for their infertility and for tricking other women into believing they were pregnant.

Dr. Jacobson, convicted on 52 counts of fraud and perjury, caused his patients "extreme psychological injury," from depression and guilt to a fear of doctors, said Judge James C. Cacheris of Federal District Court.

Judge Cacheris also ordered the 55-year-old doctor to pay $116,805 in fines and restitution, and to serve three years' probation after release from prison. Dr. Jacobson, who is married and has eight children by his wife, was allowed to remain free during appeal.

Dr. Jacobsen was convicted on March 4 after former patients testified under anonymity they never would have let him inseminate them if they had known he was using his own sperm, rather than that of anonymous donors supposedly matched to characteristics of their husbands.

Other patients told of the agony of believing they had suffered multiple miscarriages when they actually were never pregnant at all. That trickery, intended to convince patients they had become fertile under Dr. Jacobson's care, involved the use of hormone injections, according to the testimony.

Christine Maimone, one of several patients who attended the sentencing today, said: "He took away the most important thing in the world from all of us. He told us we were going to have a baby, and then it was gone."

On the witness stand Dr. Jacobson acknowledged occasionally using his own sperm when other donors were not available. He said he did not know how many children he had fathered, and his lawyer, James Tate, argued that in any case it was not illegal.

Prosecutors said Dr. Jacobson might have fathered 75 children while telling patients he was using an anonymous sperm donor.